Fun fact: New Balance makes about 25% of their shoes in the U.S. No other athletic company manufactures this high of a percentage of their shoes domestically.

The New Balance factory in Lawrence employees 230 people and produces 2,400 pairs of shoes each day.

Each shoe produced touches the hands of approximately 36 employees. Neat, right?

The 990s are New Balance’s most popular shoe, so our tour included a start-to-finish explanation of how it is manufactured.

Fun facts about the 990s:

It was first introduced in 1982.

Since its introduction, 14 million pairs have been sold.

It was the first sneaker to cost more than $100 and no one thought consumers would buy it.

After the factory tour, we took a quick break for a snack. I grabbed a butterscotch chip cookie, which tasted amazing (obviously).

For the second part of our tour, we visited the New Balance Sports Research Lab, which I had the opportunity to experience last September. A lot of the information that we received on Thursday was what I learned during my first visit, so feel free to check out my previous post. The information was still super interesting to hear for the second time. They do some really cool stuff in the Sports Research Lab.

Once we finished touring the New Balance facilities, we drove to the Wachusett Village Inn where we spent the night. The Inn’s close proximity to the start of the relay made the next morning a total breeze.

Dinner

Once we got settled in our rooms, our team had a brief Q & A with a camera crew for the relay (more on that later) and then we headed to dinner at the Inn.

I love factory tours! That’s great to see a shoe being put together. How neat to see all you gals together. When I saw the cookie, I actually thought of Monica and her quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to take like 50 posts to accurately summarize all of the epic-ness of this weekend. I don’t even know where to start! Thank you SO much for allowing me to be part of this adventure, and I miss you alreadyyyy!!

That’s so funny that you girls had a Wachusett Country beer… My husband had bought a “lot” of taps on Ebay and that was one of the taps in it. We didn’t think it was a real beer!!! I’ll have to show him this post to prove it’s real. 🙂

[…] of them are and, for more information about the trip, check out some of the blogs such as Tina from carrotsncake. A and I drove down to the finish area in Westport, MA on Saturday afternoon which was a lot of […]